Call: Technologies
for first responders

Description of programme"Secure societies – Protecting
freedom and security of Europe and its citizens"

The primary aims of the Secure Societies Challenge are:

to
enhance the resilience of our society against natural and man-made disasters, ranging from the development of new crisis management
tools to communication interoperability, and to develop novel solutions for the protection of critical infrastructure;

to
fight crime and terrorism ranging from new forensic tools to protection against explosives;

to improve border security,
ranging from improved maritime border protection to supply chain security and to support the Union's external security policies
including through conflict prevention and peace building;

and to provide enhanced cyber-security, ranging from secure
information sharing to new assurance models.

Securing the society against
disasters is one of the central elements of the functioning of any society. There is barely any societal sector which is not
to some extent concerned by disasters and related resilience and security issues. Fighting crime and terrorism requires
new technologies and capabilities for fighting and preventing crime (including cyber-crime), illegal trafficking and terrorism
(including cyber-terrorism), including understanding and tackling terrorist ideas and beliefs to also avoid aviation-related
threats. The protection of the European borders requires the development of systems, equipment, tools, processes, and
methods for rapid identification. This includes supply chain security in the context of the EU’s customs policy.

On Digital Security, this Challenge focuses on increasing the security of current applications,
services and infrastructures by integrating state-of-the-art security solutions or processes, supporting the creation of lead
markets & market incentives in Europe, following an end-user driven approach, including for instance law enforcement agencies,
first responders, operators of critical infrastructures, ICT service providers, ICT manufacturers, market operators and citizens.

This
Challenge should bring together all security stakeholders: industry - including SMEs, research organisations, universities,
as well as public authorities, non-governmental organisations and public and private organisations in the security domain.
The active involvement of end-users is of high importance.

The Secure Societies
Challenge will contribute to the implementation of the policy goals of the Europe 2020 strategy, the Security Industrial Policy, the Internal Security Strategy and
the Cyber Security Strategy.

Innovation should help increase the resilience in response to disasters. Proposals contribute to improve the protection
of first responders against multiple and unexpected danger, enhance their capacities addressing R&I issues which
are divided in sub-topics:

Victim-detection technologies

Innovation for rapid and accurate pathogens detection

Methods
and guidelines for pre-hospital life support and triage

Other technologies may also be proposed if they involve a
large number of first responders’ organisations on themes such as communicating and smart wearables; awareness and risk mitigation
systems for responders using robots or drones; systems based on the IoT.

Federal State / Region / City / Municipality / Local Authority, Research Institution,
International Organization, NGO / NPO, Public Services, National Government, Association

Applicant
details

Predefined sub-topics require the active involvement of at least 3 (5 for open topics) agencies or first
responders' organisations from at least 3 (5 for open topics) different EU or Associated countries.